Location: Greater Manchester area/hybrid
Reports to: Chief Financial Officer
Benefits package: competitive base salary plus car/allowance and annual bonus
Business Type: Private Equity–Backed, Multi‑Site Buy & Build Platform
Capital Structure: Leveraged (Senior Debt + Potential Mezzanine/Unitranche)
The Vella Group is seeking a highly capable FP&A Manager to play a pivotal role at a transformative point in the company’s journey. Reporting directly to the CFO, this newly created position sits at the heart of a PE-backed organisation that has recently secured significant investment and is entering an accelerated phase of growth through strategic acquisition and continued organic expansion. As a key member of the finance leadership team, the FP&A Manager will help shape the group’s financial future—bringing rigour to planning and reporting, providing insightful analysis to drive decision‑making, and partnering closely with senior stakeholders as the business scales at pace.
1. Role Summary
The FP&A Manager will play a critical role in supporting a high growth, private equity backed buy and build platform. The business is scaling rapidly through acquisitions and organic expansion, and the role requires a commercially minded finance professional who can operate effectively in a leveraged environment, deliver robust financial analysis, strengthen reporting disciplines, and support value creation initiatives.
This position will act as a key business partner to the CFO, senior leadership team, and PE investors, providing insight, challenge, and decision support across the group.
2. Key Responsibilities
Financial Planning & Forecasting
Lead the annual budget cycle, quarterly reforecasts, and long‑range plan modelling.
Build and maintain integrated financial models incorporating multi‑site P&Ls, acquisitions, pipeline scenarios, and leverage/covenant metrics.
Model acquisition cases, synergy opportunities, and post‑integration performance trajectories.
Performance Reporting & Insight
Deliver monthly FP&A packs, including variance analysis, operational KPIs, trend insights, and actionable commentary.
Consolidate multi‑site performance to provide group level visibility and benchmarking.
Develop dashboards/support cadence for real time performance monitoring (e.g., labour productivity, unit economics, site maturity curves).
Private Equity & Lender Reporting
Prepare board and investor materials including trading performance, covenant headroom, cash flow trends, and value creation metrics.
Support monthly and quarterly lender reporting requirements.
Monitor liquidity, headroom, and leverage ratios; highlight risks early and support mitigation strategies.
Acquisition Support & Integration
Build financial models for new acquisitions, including quality of earnings adjustments, normalised EBITDA, working capital needs, and integration impact.
Provide finance workstreams support during due diligence (commercial, financial, and operational).
Track integration KPIs and synergy realisation across acquired businesses.
Commercial Finance & Decision Support
Partner with operations leaders across the multi‑site network to improve profitability and performance.
Evaluate ROI for capex, new site openings, and strategic initiatives.
Conduct pricing, margin, and cost‑to‑serve analysis to support commercial decisions.
Systems, Controls & Process Improvement
Strengthen FP&A processes, data governance, and reporting infrastructure as the business scales.
Work closely with BI/IT teams to enhance data accuracy and automate reporting.
Implement discipline and structure typical of PE-backed environments, aiming for best‑in‑class reporting.
3. Skills & Experience Required
Qualified accountant (ACA/ACCA/CIMA) or equivalent, with 2–5+ years in FP&A, corporate finance, transaction services, or PE-backed business finance.
Experience in multi‑site, operationally intensive businesses strongly preferred.
Strong financial modelling capability — able to build and maintain robust, flexible Excel models from scratch.
Exposure to leveraged environments, lender reporting, or covenant monitoring desirable.
Experience supporting M&A or integration activities highly beneficial.
Excellent communication skills, able to translate financial data into clear insight for senior leaders and investors.
Strong commercial awareness and ability to challenge assumptions constructively.
Comfortable operating in fast paced, high growth, ambiguous environments.
4. Personal Characteristics
Highly analytical, detail oriented, and intellectually curious.
Pragmatic, proactive, and solutions oriented.
High level of ownership and accountability.
Comfortable engaging with both finance and non‑finance stakeholders.
Thrives in PE-backed cultures: fast pace, high expectations, data driven decision making.
5. Package
Competitive base salary + performance-related bonus.
Potential participation in LTIP/management incentive plan (subject to level).
Standard benefits + opportunities for growth as the group scales.
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